Sermon Illustration: Talking to Yourself

Recently, I began a sermon by pointing out that our salvation is not based on our feelings. God’s love for His children is not determined by how we are feeling at the moment.

Hallelujah.

However, what we say to ourselves about ourselves is critical to our well-being. So, to set up a sermon challenging the congregation to not be like the Hebrews and Moses in Exodus 6 (see verse 9), I gave two very captivating quotes.

First, from Paul Tripp:

No one is more influential in your life than you are, because no one talks to you as much as you talk to yourself.

Second, from David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (from his book Spiritual Depression):

The main problem in the whole matter of “spiritual depression” in a sense is this – we allow our “self” to talk to us instead of “talking to ourself.”  Most unhappiness in life is due to the fact that we “listen to ourselves” instead of “talking to ourselves.”  David, in effect, says, “Self, listen for a moment to what I have to say – why are you so cast down?”  The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself, question yourself, and preach to yourself – you must remind yourself who God is, and what God has done, and what God has promised to do – this is the essence of the treatment in a nutshell.  We must understand that this “self” of ours – this other man within us has got to be handled; do not listen to him!  turn on him!  speak to him!  remind him of what you know! 

What about you? What do you say to yourself about yourself? Is it merely horizontal? Or, do you preach the truth to yourself, vertically, from the Lord?